"A compelling account of the lives of Japanese and Japanese Americans
incarcerated during World War II...instructive and moving." (Nippon.com)
From the editor of the award-winning Children of Manzanar, Heather C.
Lindquist, and Edgar Award winner Naomi Hirahara comes a nuanced account
of the "Resettlement" the relatively unexamined period when ordinary
people of Japanese ancestry, having been unjustly imprisoned during
World War II, were finally released from custody. Given $25 and a
one-way bus ticket to make a new life, some ventured east to Denver and
Chicago to start over, while others returned to Southern California only
to face discrimination and an alarming scarcity of housing and jobs.
Hirahara and Lindquist weave new and archival oral histories into an
engaging narrative that illuminates the lives of former internees in the
postwar era, both in struggle and unlikely triumph. Listeners will
appreciate the painstaking efforts that rebuilding required and will
feel inspired by the activism that led to redress and restitution--and
that built a community that even now speaks out against other racist
agendas.
"Through this thoughtful story, we see how the harsh realities of the
incarceration experience follow real lives, and how Manzanar will sway
generations to come. When you finish the last chapter you will demand to
read more." (Gary Mayeda, national president of the Japanese American
Citizens League)
"An engaging, well-written telling of how former Manzanar detainees
played key roles in remembering and righting the wrong of the World War
II incarceration." (Tom Ikeda, executive director of Densho)
